² tn Or “wickedness, injustice.”

² tn Or “he does no injustice.”

¹ tn Heb “Why do you make me see injustice?”

² tn Heb “if there is injustice in my hands.” The “hands” figuratively suggest deeds or actions.

¹ tn Other translations render this “injustice” (NIV, NRSV, CEV) or “unrighteousness” (NASB).

² tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”

² sn Habakkuk complains that God tolerates social injustice and fails to intervene on behalf of the oppressed (put up with wrongdoing).

¹ tn Heb “so that [they] proclaim that upright [is] the Lord, my rocky summit, and there is no injustice in him.”

¹ tn The word עַוְלָה (ʿavlah) is repeated from the last verse. Here the focus is clearly on wickedness or injustice spoken.

³ sn The charge concerning the prostitutes is unproven, but essentially the older brother accuses the father of committing an injustice by rewarding his younger son’s unrighteous behavior.

⁵ sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.

¹ tn Heb “man of violence.” He influences his friends toward violence. The term חָמָס (khamas, “violence”) often refers to sins against society, social injustices, and crimes.

² tn Heb “in the heart unjust deeds you do.” The phrase “in the heart” (i.e., “mind”) seems to refer to their plans and motives. The Hebrew noun עַוְלָה (ʿavlah, “injustice”) is collocated with פָּעַל (paʿal, “do”) here and in Job 36:23 and Ps 119:3. Some emend the plural form עוֹלֹת (ʿolot, “unjust deeds”; see Ps 64:6) to the singular עָוֶל (ʿavel, “injustice”; see Job 34:32), taking the final tav (ת) as dittographic (note that the following verbal form begins with tav). Some then understand עָוֶל (ʿavel, “injustice”) as a genitive modifying “heart” and translate, “with a heart of injustice you act.”

¹ tn Heb “speak iniquity.” The form functions adverbially. The noun עַוְלָה (ʿavlah) means “perversion; injustice; iniquity; falsehood.” Here it is parallel to רְמִיָּה (r^emiyyah, “fraud; deceit; treachery”).

¹ sn In vv. 22-23 the prophet returns to themes with which he opened his speech. The accusatory elements of vv. 8, 11-12, 18-23 are arranged in a chiastic manner: (A) social injustice (8), (B) carousing (11-12a), (C) spiritual insensitivity (12b) // (C') spiritual insensitivity (18-21), (B') carousing (22), (A') social injustice (23).

² tn The noun רָעָה (raʿah, “evil”) probably means “misfortune” (HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 4) or “injustice, wrong” (HALOT 1262 s.v. רָעָה 2.b). The phrase רָעָה רַבָּה (raʿah rabbah) connotes “grave injustice” or “great misfortune” (Eccl 2:17; 5:12, 15; 6:1; 10:5).

² sn Who should be here…and bring charges. Paul was asking, where were those who brought about his arrest and claimed he broke the law? His accusers were not really present. This subtle point raised the issue of injustice.

² sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

² tn Heb “Woe to the one who builds his house by unrighteousness and its upper rooms with injustice, using his neighbor [= countryman] as a slave for nothing and not giving to him his wages.”

² sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.